Luc Starsider

Posted February 18, 2011 · February 18, 2011

So... Have they fixed it so that when you uncheck 'I want my profile to be available on the web' your profile shows in world to people trying to see it? Last I saw, when you uncheck it, your profile does not show to others in the internal browser or in any external browser regardless of whether someone is logged in or not.

And btw. I don't think it is a quirk in your setup that made your groups, picks or classifieds not show in your profile. It seems to me that this is totally random whether they show or not.

- Luc -

Viewer 2.5 with Web Profiles Has Arrived · February 11, 2011

OK, Q. What's going on. Now, when I disable 'I want my profile to be available on the web.' no-one can see my profile. It does not show on the web, regardless if you are a logged in SL user or not (which is how it should be), and it does not show in world (which it should)! Not even my friends can see my profile when I disable 'I want my profile to be available on the web.' The preference 'Show me in search results' have no impact on this. This surely is a mistake. It is for sure not how any of the residents wanted this to be. The setting should let the profile be visible in the viewer, but not in a web browser outside of the viewer!

- Luc -

Viewer 2.5 with Web Profiles Has Arrived · February 11, 2011

I'm glad to see that the privacy settings are in place now. I actually did not expect this to be taken care of that quickly. Great!

But under what project/section/area do I file a jira for the new profiles? Under 'Second Life Viewer'? Under 'Second Life Website'?

I need to file a jira since saving privacy settings in Safari (at least for windows) do not work. When I try to save the settings, all I get is a new page that says

{"status":"ok","message":"The settings have been updated"}

But nothing is actually saved.

Whether it works in Safari on the Mac, I don't yet know.

- Luc -

February 10, 2011

These do not appear to be major changes, apart from the new community plattform, but they sound pretty good.

The last couple of weeks, with the announced changes to profile privacy and now this, I'm feeling more positive towards SL and LL than I have been for some time. Before this, the gap between what we have been told, and what has been done has, in my opinion, been staggering. Several 'features' have been brought out to a deluge of negative feedback from the SL users. We've been told throughout this that LL is listening, but the actions have completely missed the main issues and concerns raised by the residents, and only small, insignificant, more or less cosmetic changes have been made. Thus, there has been a huge difference between what has been said and what has been done.

With this blog, and what is happening to profile privacy settings (given that they will continue to be web-based), things seem to be changing. Information seems to be more focused on the actual feedback, more to the point, and what is done seems to be more targeted. Good. I like that.

Whatever happens; Level with us. Tell us things straight. Address the issues raised. Talk to us as adult, reasonable beings (which most of us are). As long as we are being told what is happening, and that decisions are based on research and correct information, and in a reasonable manner, I'm sure we'll accept what is done more easily and that the feedback will be more balanced.

- Luc -

February 9, 2011

This is great news, Fredrik! I'm so glad you will make these changes - they are just what I wanted. Do you have any idea when we can expect to see them implemented?

- Luc -

February 4, 2011

I see some people saying that this isn't enough or asking how this could have been based on our feedback. First, no it isn't everything we have wished and hoped for... but let's not overlook the progress that has been made! This comment from Fredrik shows us that they are indeed listening and working to make improvements based on our feedback where they can.

Please keep in mind that "based on feedback" doesn't mean they heard what we said and followed it to the letter. It means they went through all of the feedback and made some decisions based on what we had said. There have been several points being made and several changes requested. The overall message that LL got from us was that we were concerned about privacy matters. So, they made progress towards providing more privacy. It's a couple steps forward, but haranguing against them for not living up to our every request all at once (or for past issues) does not promote a positive, forward-moving environment.

The changes outlined are actually of no consequence, and not at all addressing the main issues that have been raised in the comments here. LL are avoiding the issue of letting us choose the level of exposure for our profiles as a whole, making changes to a couple of aspects of them that on the surface seems to be what we ask for, but in reality they are mere details that in effect changes nothing.

The changes might be 'based on feedback', but are actually not making any difference to the main concerns.

- Luc -

February 4, 2011

A good start, but, as others have pointed out, not what we asked for.

Could you please tell us, in a straight forward way, whether you are going to implement this for the rest of the profile, and also let us choose to get rid of the FB/Twitter widgets? Soon, or at all?

- Luc -

February 4, 2011

It is great to see that you take the time to reply to comments even if, I imagine, you have your hands full getting up to speed as the new CEO. I have to say, I think the replies you have made so far are more focused, more to the point than I've seen from LL in a long time, and actually addresses issues raised in comments to a higher degree than we have become used to.

However. This - 'We will look at the other two bits of feedback. Just give us a few days to work through the first batch of changes.' - contains the kind of non-information we are used to. I get nothing useful from those sentences. What does it mean? Then what? There is nothing in there that tells me whether you will let me decide for myself who can access my profile or not, or whether I will be able to decide if the widgets will be available on my profile or not.
I can actually see only one reason you would not give us the option to specify the level of visibility for these two things; If it interferes with some plans you have that require userprofiles to be visible to the whole world. If this is the case I would appreciate if you could level with us, and tell us, so that we can decide if we want to be a part of it or not. If no such plan are in the works, then what's the problem?

Feel free to correct me on this, though, and please let us know whether you are going to let us choose privacy settings/levels for our profiles as well as for groups/picks.

- Luc -

January 28, 2011

I agree.

As I have said elsewhere in the blog, at times it seems like Linden Lab's beta program is totally out of control – at least when it comes to customer facing applications and services.

They have made great strides in increasing performance and stability of the grid. But when it comes to the marketplace, the blogs and forums, the viewer and support it is close to disaster, both in terms of information, features, usability and privacy.

My main beef in this particular case is that they – under the cover of a beta, have thrown people's trust in reasonable privacy on the boat, for who knows what. Even without telling anyone. The damage for the current customer base is already done.

If they need to generate more revenue, for heavens sake tell us and don't just sell us out for ad space.

I am sure that, in a positive dialog with land owners and content creators, together we could make the platform grow with revenue increasing for everyone. We understand this is your little baby, but there are thousands of babies riding along with you who also wants to grow up. You don't have go it alone Linden Lab!

I was thinking about the purpose of the viewer bets were just before I read your reply. To me, releasing betas is a way to find and fix bugs, and to streamline features, before a production version is released. This may take some time and require several betas. In the case of LL, it seems the schedule is more important, and betas are released because 'that's what is done' rather than to improve the product before an official release. The evidence is in the number of bugs that have been filed that have not been fixed between releases. That is, between both viewer versions, and between beta and production versions of each viewer.

I have to say, though, as you point out, that server side things are actually improving. I agree that the customer facing products are suffering.

- Luc -

January 28, 2011

I agree they should have announced the change before releasing it.

One thing that seems particularly stupid to me is this; Even Facebook lets you decide what information you want to expose, and to whom you want to expose it. LL, who obviously want to turn SL into a social network platform, have not thought of letting the users choose for themselves before unleashing this 'feature'. It seems to be a completely alien concept to them to let us choose how we want our own information to be exposed, but, apparently they are concidering it. (Which probably mean it won't happen.)

Frankly, the whole thing makes me embarassed on LL's behalf. I wish they would stop treating SL as some sort of in-house development project - where bugs don't get fixed, and where half thought out, half developed, half planned features and functions are deemed good enough to be released - and in stead start seeing it as the commercial service it is and start planning features from start to finish, concider what their customers want and need, and actually develop SL based on this. I don't think ANY other company who provides a commercial service like SL would go about things the way LL do.

- Luc -

January 25, 2011

It's a bit cumbersome to find, but this is how:

Click your name in the top-right corner of the page. Click 'Manage email notifications' from the 'Actions' menu on the left hand side of your profile. Find the post in question in the list and click the checkbox next to it, and then click 'Remove selected notifications' below the list.

- Luc -

January 21, 2011

Welcome, Rodvik! Great to see you are enjoying being in SL. I hope you get the chance to spend time in world - as Rodvik or as an alt - later, too. I'm sure lots of us, the residents, will appreciate it a lot if we see you in world, and perhaps get a chance to have a chat from time to time.

Now, one thing I would like is if you could have a look at, and change some of, the dicisions that have been made regarding the new web profiles. The comments in the blog post announcing the 2.5 beta clearly states that many residents feel uncomfortable with some aspects of the profiles, and would like some changes to the way things currently work.

But, again, welcome to SL, and have fun!

- Luc -

January 20, 2011

Thanks Cybin. Voted, of course.

- Luc -

January 20, 2011

The new profiles are really a big mistake. I would not be surprised if lots of people are now going to leave SL because of it. Anybody can access my profile - not just SL residents - and share it on Facebook and Twitter. Ridiculous! We, the residents, should have a say in how our profiles can be accessed and used. I for one have no problem if other residents can see my profile in their viewer, but I do not want god-knows-who on the net to be able to access my profile. This info is nobody's business but SL residents.

The effect of this is that I'm now going to remove anything in my profile that I can, and replace it with a statement saying why I removed it.

Please, Lindens! Make it so the users themselves are able to control how and where their profiles are visible and accessible!

- Luc -

January 14, 2011

These sounds like great improvements. I hope, as others have said above, that web profiles are opt-in. At least as far as being searchable, and viewable, for anybody is concerned.

- Luc -

December 16, 2010

I've got the same Mac and system, and have had the jerkiness issue since a few versions ago. But for the last few days, I've been connecting through a different, much faster, broadband than before, and I have not noticed any of the twitches. I've not been able to be in world for long, so I'm not entirely sure the jerkiness is gone, but it seems good so far. Maybe you have the chance to test connecting on a different network and see if you still have the same issue.

- Luc -

December 8, 2010

I've been using the beta since it was released. So far, I'm pretty pleased with it. It seems to me to be the most stable release since v. 2.1.1.

I really like the transparency for panels, but I want more of it. Among other things, transparency on the sidebar when it overlays the 3d view.

I also think the added preferences, and the reorganization of prefs are pretty well done.

Keep up the good work!

- Luc -

December 3, 2010

This is a really cool feature. I've been playing around with it for a few days, and generally like it a lot.

There is one thing I don't like about it. When you use a Space Navigator in flycam mode and move close to an avatar or an object, the object or avatar becomes blurry and whatever is in the background becomes sharp. I know you get the camera to focus by hovering the mouse over the objects you want in focus, but it still seems a bit wrong, especially when you first enter flycam mode and start flying around without moving the mouse pointer. The logical thing, it seems to me at least, would be to focus on foreground objects by default in this situation. This would also make it less necessary to mouse around the screen while using the fly cam.

Still; A great feature that I hope make it in to the regular viewer really soon!

- Luc -

November 23, 2010

From my own tests 2.4 Beta is the fastest Viewer 2 yet on low-powered machines, but it may also be the buggiest thanks to a lack of proper QA at LL nowadays.

The effect being that you crash faster than ever before. If you have a Mac, with (*GASP*) an ATI card, you'll probably crash before even launching the viewer.

This is the problem. The versions are released quicker than ever, the beta periods are shorter than ever, but with more bugs and errors than ever. I would prefer if LL stopped up for a while, looked through some of the error reports and released some 2.x.X versions, making the viewer more stable, before they thought of releasing a new 2.X version, introducing new features and new bugs.

The way it is now, more and more people are getting more and more fed up with bugs and crashes, and are looking for alternative viewers.

- Luc -

November 19, 2010

From what I understand from the numerous jiras filed for this, the change in what outfits you can choose replace for, is intentional. They effectively changed it so that in many cases replacing an outfit require one click per item as opposed to one click for the whole outfit. Apparently, an outfit that has all the necessary body parts can still be replaced the 'old' way, but one where a body part is missing can not. I'm not 100% sure that this is correct, though. Most of my own outfits has all bodyparts in them, as far as I remember, but I still can not replace them.

- Luc -

November 19, 2010

Yes. The question marks are everywhere! Seems people are seeing different variations of the same issue - other peoples name as question marks, ones own name as question marks, everybodys name as question marks. Above peoples heads, in the chat list, in the friends list, and so on. Pick any combination of these, and someone will have had the issue.

Turn off 'Show display names' in preferences, and you should see normal names.

I'm wondering how a bug like this could be allowed to exist in a production version of the viewer, especially a bug related to the newest, shinyest useless toy from LL. It's not like it was unknown either - it was reported as a bug in the beta already.

- Luc -

November 17, 2010

This is just silly. No company would release a piece of software where basic functions like these did not work. Every new version of the viewer is more buggy than the previous, and I'm slowly getting fed up with it. I've liked it from the beginning, but I'm now thinking of finding a TPV that works. Not because of the features, but because of the errors and bugs that seems to multiply over time.

- Luc -

Pay peanuts...get Monkeys from Odessa, Ukraine! Never mind...you still got another shiney to play with ala "Display names"

My fingers seems to have slipped on the keyboard. I meant a commercial software company would not release... and so on.

I would actually pay more if that meant getting a viewer that was developed with the quality of a commercial product in mind as opposed to a product developed with the mindset of a company creating an in-house tool. I mean, they are down to, what, two week beta cycles now? New bugs - some of them quite serious - being reported almost every day but not fixed in the production version. Crashes in the viewer - just out of beta - before you reach the log in screen - crashes not present in the beta, even.

But that's ok, I guess, as long as display names work. Lots of bugs have been reported for this feature, too. How many have been fixed since the beta period started? Less than have been reported, I'm sure.

Display names is a shiny toy, for sure, but one I will not play with.

- Luc -

November 17, 2010

I had to delete ALL settings before I got this version to load. Before that, it crashed before reaching the login screen. I managed to keep chat and IM logs, but had to delete everything else. This is not good!

Also, replace current outfit does not work! Not in the outfits pane of the sidebar, nor in the My outfits folder in the inventory. Now, that's just completely ridiculous!

This is just silly. No company would release a piece of software where basic functions like these did not work. Every new version of the viewer is more buggy than the previous, and I'm slowly getting fed up with it. I've liked it from the beginning, but I'm now thinking of finding a TPV that works. Not because of the features, but because of the errors and bugs that seems to multiply over time.

- Luc -

November 17, 2010

I got in, no problems. From behind a corporate firewall, using Safari on win Vista, in the north of Europe. I was sure it wouldn't work with this setup, but I got in without problems; I could walk, talk, fly, and it all went smoothly. Graphics quality are obviously not the same as in the viewer, but who cares! This is great!

I do miss the mini map, and I would like to be able to change my appearance beyond just selecting one of the prefab avatars.

Apart from that; this is a great way for people to check SL out before joining.

- Luc -

November 17, 2010

Are you sure? I'm in the north of Europe and got in.

- Luc -

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